An AKB48 fan boasting of buying 1500 singles has become the latest example of the unbelievable creepiness such fans have become a byword for.

As usual, the primary motivation for this obsessive feat appears to be the extras the CDs contain – typically tickets which allow access to handshaking events or voting rights in AKB popularity contests, which is apparently the case here.

Aside from the opprobrium the frequently unbalanced antics such obsessive fans get up to attracts, AKB’s owners have come in for plenty of criticism for encouraging them with such sales tactics.

Even some in the music business appear to be unhappy at the influence such tactics have on Japan’s music charts (the singles charts are now at such low sales volumes that it seems multiple buying by otaku influences them).

Such high level behaviour has its detractors, even on 2ch:

“Having my little sister sign all of those was quite a hassle for her.”

[…]

“I don’t want to see Yuria’s sad face! You guys hang in there too!”

[…]

“Ah, I got 200 of the tickets out. Only 1300 left…”

[…]

“It looks like I’ll get it done today. After that I’ll need to get the handshaking event tickets out as well. More arrive tomorrow so I have a lot of work left!”

“They may as well just leave out the CDs now.”

“This is crazy.”

“These guys have more money than sense…”

“How do they even get that much money?”

“Probably students working part time with no real living expenses of their own?”

“It’s certainly their money to do with as they please if they earned it, but they are still totally creepy.”

“Do they just toss the CDs after getting the tickets or what?”

“If this isn’t some kind of put up by the organisers then some of these people have mental problems.”

“They need to just provide some machine at conbinis which lets them pay to vote.”

“At least just sell the tickets on their own. It’s just a waste making these retards buy up CDs.”

“If you have that much cash to throw away you could buy one of the fallen AKB members who turned to porn.”

“Somebody start a company to open the CDs for these idiots.”

“I bet they just trash the discs. When I think of them praising their music, I just laugh.”

I don’t find this creepy. Strange, way obsessive, and utterly incomprehensible (though I don’t get the fans in general) but what others do with their time and money is their problem, as long as it don’t interfere with other people.

This is probably exactly what the company behind this group wants though since idols groups like this is 80% about marketing and 20% about music.

You see, based from the reactions we get here it is pretty obvious that most of the people here are a bunch of haters whose judgment are blinded by their hate towards AKB48. I’m not a wota, just a casual fan who usually buys 3 different versions of a single to obtain 3 tickets for the shake-hands event (for their current single each cd includes a voting coupon for the annual senbatsu election). And I can tell that this guy is hoarding cds for resell purpose. You can sell the cds for higher price especially now that there is a senbatsu election going on, and the only way to obtain the voting coupon is to buy the cd. I’m actually planning to sell my other 2 voting coupons (not the cds) since I’m already satisfied with my 1 vote that goes to Yukirin. (>_<)

LOL probably reseller. It’s the same case with the chinese “fan” that bought “5500 copies” last year. The guy sold it all on his website but not an actual fan.
People do that all the time even if they’re not AKB fans

Well if you bothered to download a copy it wouldn’t hurt to try something else right? Why don’t you try their B-sides like type in “VID48 alive” in google… Their summery songs aren’t a good representation of their other stuff

This is another wonderful example of an overblown story on Sancom. People do this with every single not for the handshake tickets but for the pictures in the CD. They are collectible and sell for well over the cost of the single.

Note the pictures shown in front of the CDs in picture 2.

This guy stands to make well over what he paid for the singles.

If this really were someone wanting to get handshake tickets then they wouldnt need that many CDs. Usually you only need like 3 singles to get a complete ticket. (3 CDs = All the versions of the single)

Yo, in this Wota’s defense… Manatsu no Sounds Good is one of the dopest fuckin’ singles ever. I woulda bought at least 10 singles if I wasn’t already occupied with SKE48 and NMB48’s releases the same week.

I only got two copies!!! Don’t know who I’m voting for, fuck…. Couldn’t spend too much cause I’m going to Tokyo Dome concert in august…. this guy’s my hero, even if all the dakimakura and oppai mouse pad fucking faggots in these comments thinks he’s a loser.

where the fuck does all the money come from? that single costs roughly ￥3,640 (£29 approx), 1500 of them would cost £43500. i could get myself a 3d projector + screen, a car, and maybe a house with all that.

…and we are supposed to give a shit, why? Literally everything that you own and use is manufactured in China by poor little Chinese children. It’s their own fault for being born in such a shit hole of a country. Feeling guilty? Want to be a moral faggot? Then throw away everything you own that has a little ‘Made in China’ symbol stamped on it.

I think you only need 10 coupons to get a “Handshake Ticket” (Maybe it’s 12?).

Hey, I’ve paid a girl in my film class $100 to grind me and let grope every inch of her body for 15 minutes (She’s a Stripper).

I’ve paid about $100 (which the girl only saw 1/2 of) to make girls on MFC do sexual stuff

I’d gladly pay Mayu Watanabe (AKB48) $100 for a handshake & take a cute picture with her. Plus, You get to see ALL the girls up close and probably wave & make eye-contact. It’s a bargain compared to most of America’s pop stars.

The guy can probably make back the money once he sell the photocards (especially theater ver photocards can go for $80 USD on auction, saw it on ebay) the voting tickets (there’s already 100 tickets for auction on Yahoo Japan) and for the CD alone.

What he could have bought instead for $37,500.
1 Camaro 1SS,1 370Z,2 Toyota Yarises and still have money left over for insurance and taxes,11 top of the line Alienware Aurora gaming PCs,A Sonex kit plane with engine and instruments,107 PS3s,13 trips on a cruise ship in a balcony cabin vs somewhere inside the bowels of the ship,or even a mobile home and get the fuck out of his parents basement.

It’s for the vote. AKB fans see it as a big deal and he’s probably trying to make sure his favourite stays at the top. But even without the election, AKB48 has no trouble selling a million and a half singles so saying that it’s heavily influenced by multiple buyers is misleading. Only one single a year uses this tactic and it’s never been their best selling single which does.

Besides, he probably doesn’t have anywhere else to sink his money. Unless any of you think’s he has a girlfriend…? At least with this a lot of the sales are going to charity. So it’s not useless.

Most of the “high” sales of lates AKBs singles are made in fact for retail guys. Plus creepy wotas that buy average(some buy more some buy less)like 5 to 10 copies every single, but with election tickest the sales go up even more.

I made a fast calculation to made a funny fact based in this phenomenon: First day sales of this single: 1 170 000 (yes… its true) But… how many of this CDs will be played? In an optimistic number I could say that just the 50% of this CDs will be… used, maybe even less than that. All will be opened because de tickets of course, but not all will be played… never.

And that actually constitutes as fraud when their company boasts about AKB being at the top of sales charts; it doesn’t mean AKB is really that popular to a lot of people, it just has relatively few fans willing to buy dozens of copies at once. The general public are mostly unaware of this though so they thought AKB are more popular than they really are.

But hey, consumerism is embraced in Japanese culture. Normally you won’t find rock bands in the West endorsing products and appearing in huge ads for them(we call that ‘selling themselves out’).

Also that’s just physical CDs. Tossing out not just pirated music but also legally bought downloads.
I’d say most people by far only buy one CD, but wota would buy all three/four versions. It would be really unusual for a non-senbatsu ticket container to sell as much as people are assuming. And even then, it’s rare.

The way to tell if something is really popular is to see for how long it sells. If it sells only on the first day, it’s all crazies. If it sells continuously, it captured the general public. Most AKB48 says stick for a good few weeks.

Umm even if the actual sales are 300 000 that’s still number 1 on the weekly charts???

Even if the number was 300 000 that’s still within the top 10 in the yearly charts, the highest selling idol group AND only less the Arashi’s sales??? I don’t see how 300 000 would constitute a group with “relatively few fans”, unless you’re implying the whole of the Japanese music industry has “relatively few” people following it

I think Annon 9:17 talk about “fraud” because the other artists that compete in the same arena (japanese music scene) are in a ….little disadvantage with this Idols groups and their sale tricks.

Meanwhile some artists build their succes because music talent (delivering a real good piece of music), this Idols sales good not exactly because the music but because a… serial number or a ticket for handshake or a photo, something that dont have to do so much with the single or the music “per se”

The goal is sale, and sale big, thats for sure. What really sales or the quality is another story.

…Just confirming here, but do you know how AKB works? It’s not like they keep the same people, they’re a huge group and have girls graduating and being introduced constantly. It’s more accurate to think of them as a production company.

I’d concede that the entire “large pop idol group” thing can go out of fashion, but I doubt it’d be soon.

OK! OK! – sorry to spoil the Fun, But I asked my ‘AKB48 Sensi’ about most of Sancom’s stories and oddly many were debunked.

This story is similar to one posted where a guy posts that he bought 1,000? (or so) to ensure that Yuko Oshima won?… It was a Chinese wholesaler who merely had someone “pose next to” the open boxes of UNOPENED wrapped CD’s. I have a link to Debunk story.

This is likely the same deal. You’ve been TROLLED. I admit I’d do the same thing for giggles (Not Buy a million CD’s).

The AKB48 ‘community’ is actually a lot tamer even I thought. People (the one’s that speak English anyway) have been very helpful and eager to share links, soft-subs, boards, movies, TV Dramas, and such. I actually went looking for the “NutBall fans” (cause they’d have the best stuff) but the fans really do enjoy the music as there’s like 5-8 splinter ‘groups’ connected to AKB48, there’s always something “happening”.

And for the record my AKB contact is actually a Japanese girl- I assumed she was a guy for 2 weeks- lol.

It’s more likely these are greatly exaggerated stories, not outright fabrications. Common sense would have place fans buying 2-5 cds. But there are ardent fans who would buy more than 10. They may even buy them just to inflate the charts then return it after a reasonable period. Just look into Bieber or Twilight. Won’t give numbers to back up as I want nothing to do with the mentioned groups.

Ehm… am i the only one who don’t see what’s wrong here?. I mean yeah he bought a lot of discs and maybe is “Showing off” like some people said but i don’t find it disturbing like people said =S it’s just a bunch of discs, not the head of a person chopped off or something like that D: